This year's resolution: Give up bland veggies

By Barbara Damrosch, The Washington Post

Posted:
01/10/2014 07:52:29 AM MST

Start 2014 off with as many fresh vegetables as you can get your hands on. (NewsCred)

The resolutions we make in January are so negative. Too much like giving something up for Lent. So this year I've resolved to feast on flavor — not by eating more, not by eating less, just doing it better. How many ways can I make 2014 the most delicious year?

Let's start with freshness. Stock up on noodles, stock up on steak, but when it comes to produce, seize not the day but the minute. Here's Harold McGee in “On Food and Cooking: the Science and Lore of the Kitchen“: “Most vegetables contain only moderate amounts of sugar and acid, and these are quickly used up by the plant cells after harvest. This is why vegetables picked just before cooking are more fulfilling than store bought produce.” I already pick from the garden, but this year I'm going to do more grazing, too. The taste of lettuce or peas nibbled right in the garden is the touchstone against which meals should be measured.

At the table, it's important to eat slowly and concentrate on flavors — how well certain ones go together and how best to enjoy ones that aren't your favorites. Many food plants produce chemical compounds to ward off predators. Though these often contain antioxidants and other health boosters, they can taste bitter or strong.

Plant breeding, over the years, has sought to mellow vegetables to the point of blandness, but the best varieties retain a subtle balance of sweet and bitter, or sweet and tart. Best to tweak them in the kitchen. Combine them with starches such as potatoes. Sweeten them with a bit of honey. Anoint them with a little oil or butter or bits of pork. Adding fat also makes fat-soluble nutrients such as carotene and lycopene easier to absorb (and yummier) when you're cooking peppers, tomatoes and carrots.

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Friends who have visited India and Southeast Asia always return with flavor-enhancing skills. Slowly and carefully they toast their spices before using them in dishes. Just as with toasting nuts, the warmth magnifies the tastes and the aromas that make us love good food. I plan to do more of that. I'll also roast more root vegetables, which concentrates their flavor.

But back to the garden. The time of year when you harvest a crop makes a big difference. Tomatoes are ambrosia in August, sawdust in fall. Most greens and many root vegetables sweeten in cool weather. How you grow them matters, too. A fertile soil, well balanced, with a full set of micronutrients, will yield tastier food.

The array of vegetable varieties from which to choose is immense, and flavor is an important but challenging part of that. A catalogue might describe a plant as easy to grow in a small space, early-bearing, vigorous, productive and pretty to look at. But flavor is elusive, personal, hard to pin down. As a gardener I balance the tried and true — old varieties that cooks have always loved — with new ones that seem worth a shot. Sharing with gardening neighbors can uncover new favorites. So can sampling what local farmers offer at markets. They'll tell you what varieties they grow. Here's what I look for: beans that taste intensely like beans, melons like melons and squash like squash. You can't go wrong with that.